Yoga Poetry for Spring

Welcome

You come through the gate,
and your life on earth begins:
green wavering into the hue
of early spring, the growing
heat pouring leaf into form
just as you did, are doing,
will do with lack, rain, rivers,
kisses, wind, and horizons
that come each turning.
You stand up in your dream,
lean on the fence, look wide
toward the lights spilled
across the black expanse
that carries the world.
The next destination pours
toward you as you walk.
A thunderhead powers upward,
spends itself over the past,
behind you to your left.
You turn and look one direction,
then another until you’re back
where you started: welcome
as rain in the tall reach of the weather
of your body, of this life
that breathes in time, breathes out light.

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the Poet Laureate of Kansas, and the author of 14 books, including a forthcoming novel, The Divorce Girl; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community & Coming Home to the Body (Ice Cube Books); and four collections of poetry. Founder of Transformative Language Arts – a master's program in social and personal transformation through the written, spoken and sung word at Goddard College (Goddard College); where she teaches, Mirriam-Goldberg also leads writing workshops widely. With singer Kelley Hunt, she co-writes songs, offers collaborative performances, and leads writing and singing Brave Voice retreats (www.BraveVoice.com); and she blogs regularly at her website (www.CarynMirriamGoldberg.wordpress.com)